At the outset of 2018, the unemployment rate is 4.1 per cent (de facto full employment); economic growth is slightly above three per cent (well ahead of that of recent years); new jobs are being created at more than 200,000 a month; consumer spending and confidence has risen above last year’s levels, and the stock market breaks records daily (it’s now closing in on 25,000).

When I was in sixth grade, my impassioned 4-H speech about the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors didn’t even merit an Honorable Mention (my fifth-grade speech about our thumb-sucking cat had taken me all the way to the county level!); so I can empathize with those military intelligence officials who are being ridiculed for the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification program.

After saber-rattling for weeks that they would shut down the federal government unless the 790,000 "dreamers" under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACAs) program were granted amnesty, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi quietly withdrew their threat.

With his signing of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, President Trump will achieve three signature legislative victories for the American people: cutting taxes, repealing the Obamacare mandate, and boosting American energy production.